European Forum

Non-stop street rallies end in Tbilisi after 107 days

On July 24th the daily opposition rallies in Georgia’s capital calling for President Saakashvili’s resignation ended. The opposition leaders involved in the protests are saying it’s not the end of the struggle, and pledge to continue in the autumn. However, for now they have not come out with specific plans of that struggle and state that consultations between different opposition forces are ongoing.

A popular opposition leader, Levan Gachechiladze, stated that ‘we need to restore our forces and resources; we do not drop our demands… We will restore our forces and restart it again’.
Former parliamentary speaker and leader of Democratic Movement – United Georgia, Nino Burjanadze, said the opposition would resume protests ‘when we deem it necessary, in a form, which will be appropriate.’ She added: ‘the protest charge is high in the society; what we, the opposition, are doing is to direct this charge within the political course; but it can go beyond this course if the authorities do not become reasonable… I mean that this sense of protest, which is in the society, may spill out from the political processes and we, the leaders, may not be able to control it’. Leader of Georgia’s Way party, Salome Zourabichvili, described the campaign as ‘passing a halfway’ towards achieving the goal. She said she was ‘even more optimistic’ today than she was before and ‘can say that we have already passed a very difficult halfway… We have passed this way without going beyond the constitution’.

However, leader of the New Rights Party (part of Alliance for Georgia) Davit Gamkrelidze, acknowledged that at this stage the campaign failed to bring about tangible results. ‘The reason why this stage of [protests] did not bring result is that there was no alternative to Saakashvili,’ he said. He, however, also said that although Saakashvili maintained grip on power, ‘the protest rallies have weakened him very much.’

At this point, however, the focus seems to be shifting in the direction of local elections, which President Saakashvili has offered to hold on May 30, 2010, instead of next autumn. The proposal also includes direct elections of the capital city’s mayor. Echoing his political partner Irakli Alasania’s (leader of Alliance for Georgia) remarks, Gamkrelidze also said that a proper electoral environment should be established before the local elections, involving free media and depolitization of law enforcement agencies.

The opposition also says that with the end of street protests the problems facing the country have not and will not fade away without real democratic reforms by the authorities. ‘It’s now up to Saakashvili to decide: he should either compromise or resign,’ Salome Zourabichvili said.

Sources: Civil. ge